Liberals feared that a Mitt Romney presidency could mean the end of the most significant piece of social legislation in half a century .

Conservatives feared a second Obama term would allow implementation of another massive entitlement program .

But for hospital administrators and businesses like health insurance companies and drug makers , the biggest fear on election night was that they would be left with an enormous mess to clean up .

Although the Affordable Care Act , passed in 2010 , wo n't be fully in place until 2014 , billions of dollars have already been distributed and the wheels of reform have begun to turn .

Seniors with Medicare prescription drug coverage are getting cash rebates . Young adults have joined their parents ' insurance policies . Uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions are getting health coverage through Obamacare programs . Some states are setting up health insurance consumer assistance bureaus and drawing up the architecture for new exchanges where private health insurance will be sold and regulated .

Stopping all of that , which Romney vowed to do if not by edict then by throwing truckloads of sand in the government 's regulatory gears , would have created chaos .

TIME.com : Obamacare 's ` health panel '

The ability of critics to challenge the law 's legitimacy was drastically reduced with the Supreme Court upholding its constitutionality earlier this year . But it is also important that Obama administration officials will be in charge during the law 's full implementation . Hospitals , insurers , drug companies and patients can now expect a more orderly rollout of the Affordable Care Act over the next few years .

As Jennifer Haberkorn reported in Politico last week , the Obama administration recently reduced the flow of new regulations defining precisely how the legislative language of Obamacare would work in practice . The purpose of holding back new rules was to avoid controversy close to the election .

As Haberkorn reported , there 's now a backlog of new regulations that are expected to be unveiled soon , including some that could affect wide swaths of the population . We still do n't know , for example , what health services and expenses insurers will be required to cover under Obamacare .

At the same time , governors will soon decide whether to set up their own health insurance marketplaces to regulate individual and small business health plans . Many Republican governors had held off making this call until after the election . States that opt not to set up exchanges will open the door for the federal government to run them instead .

Thanks to a part of the Supreme Court Obamacare ruling that left the law 's large Medicaid expansion as optional instead of mandatory for states , governors and state legislatures will also have to decide whether to widen eligibility for the public insurance program .

-LRB- Here 's a reliable timeline of Obamacare provisions and when they are scheduled to go into effect . -RRB-

As Phil Galewitz reported for Kaiser Health News , some state-based Republicans may be persuaded to get on board with such pieces of the law now that it 's definitely staying on the books :

`` Mike Fasano , a Republican and one of the longest serving Florida lawmakers , said with the president 's win , the GOP-dominated state legislature would ` take a hard look ' at expanding Medicaid -- despite the opposition of Republican Gov. Rick Scott .

`` Fasano , who is moving from the state Senate to the state House next year , said Florida ca n't afford to miss out on new revenue without having its own plan to help more than 4 million residents who lack health insurance . He acknowledged that challenging Scott would be an uphill battle but said the governor 's waning popularity might embolden lawmakers . ''

TIME.com : What the health care decision means for the country

Despite the Affordable Care Act 's more certain future under an Obama second term , controversy over the law is n't over . The public is still largely split on its merits . Republican state lawmakers and governors wo n't suddenly and universally back the law . Republicans in Congress still have say over funding for some of its programs .

But the health care industry is now free from a great deal of uncertainty . Or at least it 's free from this round of uncertainty . Any policy , business sector or law that 's tangled up with politics will always retain a tinge of the unknown . See here .

This article was originally published on TIME.com

What Obama 's re-election means for health care

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Although the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 , it wo n't be fully in place until 2014

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Obama administration officials will be in charge during the law 's full implementation

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There 's a backlog of new regulations that are expected to be unveiled soon